On March 16, 2023, a strong backdoor cold front swept from north to south through eastern NM. Strong northerly winds accompanied and followed in the wake of this cold front, especially along the NM and TX border.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS ABQ wrote it up.
On March 16, 2023, a strong backdoor cold front swept from north to south through eastern NM. Strong northerly winds accompanied and followed in the wake of this cold front, especially along the NM and TX border. A high wind gust of 69 mph was reported near Clovis by a mesonet station during the afternoon period.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Albuquerque, NM wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 16, 10:42 AM MST, 2 hours 25 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 1142 AM MDT Thu Mar 16 2023 ...New AVIATION... .SYNOPSIS... Issued at 259 AM MDT Thu Mar 16 2023 Widespread rain and mountain snow is expected today through Friday, Significant snow accumulations and winter driving conditions are likely in the mountains above 9,000 feet while locally slick roads are possible in lower elevations during brief periods of snow. A cold front will push westward across the state today into Friday, resulting in strong northerly winds on the eastern plains this afternoon and gusty east canyon winds in the Albuquerque metro area tonight into tomorrow morning. Cooler than average temperatures and precipitation chances stick around through the weekend. Another Pacific storm may bring more mountain snow, low elevation rain/snow, and wind to the state early to mid- next week. && .SHORT TERM... (Today through Friday) Issued at 259 AM MDT Thu Mar 16 2023 A second and more robust wave of rain and mountain snow will continue to spread into western and central NM through the morning as an upstream shortwave trough approaches. Snow levels will remain quite high through the morning, as evidenced by mid to upper 30s deg F dewpoint readings (even 33 F at KAXX as of 0800UTC). This will mean a heavy, wet snow for areas between 8,000 and 9,500 ft, turning to a higher snow-to-liquid ratio above 10,000 ft through the morning. Precip will be focusing over the northeastern quadrant of NM through the day with some rain expected to change to snow this afternoon at some lower elevations between 7,000 to 8,000 feet to include Las Vegas to Raton and the highlands around Des Moines and Capulin. With high temperatures expected to reach the low 40’s deg F in these areas, do not anticipate a great deal of snow accumulation on roads, but a brief 1 to 2 hour burst of afternoon snow with very low visibility will be possible along the upper I-25 corridor and parts of U.S. 64/87. Most of the precip in northeast NM will be largely driven by frontogenetical forcing and then also some upslope that will develop on the east faces of the Sangres toward the late afternoon. The backdoor front will also be responsible for a tight packing of isobars across northeast and eventually east central NM this afternoon with gusty north winds. This has prompted the issuance of a Wind Advisory for east central zones and it might need to be expanded into Union county. Elsewhere, faint lift from the decaying perturbations aloft will keep showers and perhaps a few thunderstorms going over western and central zones this afternoon. Into tonight, the front will spill westward beyond the central mountain chain, through the Rio Grande valley and upslope over the Continental Divide. This will usher in gusty east canyon winds, especially for eastern Albuquerque where gusts of 35 to 45 mph could occur overnight and into Friday morning. Upslope flow will keep snow going over the east faces of the central mountain chain overnight with a slow downward trend in precip rates. The upslope will then cause precip to spread to the Continental Divide early Friday morning. Have not expanded the Winter Weather Advisory to these central and west central highland/mountains zones, but the day shift today will need to reconsider, as a couple inches of snow accumulation will be possible. The east canyon wind will diminish late Friday morning, but precip will get a second wind later in the day, mainly over west central to north central areas where another upstream shortwave trough will be arriving. Forecast models have been extremely fickle with this feature and now depict it as being considerably sharper and more potent than 24 hours ago. Enough cooling aloft could keep things unstable enough for a few more claps of thunder Friday afternoon. Temperatures will be significantly cooler than average by 15 to 20 degrees in many zones Friday. && .LONG TERM... (Friday night through Wednesday) Issued at 259 AM MDT Thu Mar 16 2023 Some lingering snow showers are possible in the high terrain of northern New Mexico through Friday night. Low-level moisture will still be in place from the backdoor front that pushed trough, but models disagree whether or not another weak shortwave will push in from the west and provide the forcing to generate some orographic precipitation. Guidance has been struggling to come to a consensus about what will happen this weekend. PoPs have jumped up and down with the last few forecast packages and this one is no different. The main plume of Pacific moisture will have shifted south over Mexico on Saturday, but there are some indications that a surface high over central Texas will redirect the moisture into New Mexico at the same time that mid and high level moisture streams in from the west. The difference between 10th and 90th percentile dewpoints exceeds 10 degrees throughout the state over the weekend due to the uncertainty of how far north the Pacific moisture will reach into the state. South central areas will be favored for precipitation given their proximity to the moisture source. On Monday, winds will switch back to westerly at all levels as yet another swath of Pacific moisture is advected inland. Models are in good agreement that another trough will move down the west coast of California, but there is still some disagreement on how deep the trough will be and how quickly it will move inland. On Monday and Tuesday, precipitation chances favor western and northern New Mexico given that the European and Canadian ensemble mean PWATs are 200- 250% of normal in these areas. There are indications that the moisture will spread further south and east by the middle of the week, but that is dependent on the trough moving southward into the desert southwest. In addition, temperatures have trended warmer during this time period, but precipitation type will still likely be diurnally driven as snow levels fluctuate between 5-6kft at night and 8-9kft during the day. As the Pacific trough pushes inland on Tuesday and Wednesday, 700 mb wind speeds will increase across the state, translating to an uptick in wind speeds at the surface Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. && .AVIATION... (18Z TAFS) Issued at 1135 AM MDT Thu Mar 16 2023 A mixed-bag of VFR to LIFR conditions prevail across the area, with areas of showers and mountain obscurations. Some improvement is forecast across western NM this afternoon, but rapid deterioration is expected this evening as a backdoor cold front surges westward through the central mountain chain and brings a gusty east canyon/gap wind to KABQ. An Airport Weather Warning for KABQ will likely be required for gusts to between 35-40kts overnight. The backdoor front should reach KROW around 21Z and will bring northerly winds gusts to between 35-40kts. Mountain obscurations will become widespread overnight. Improvement Friday morning will be slow at best. && .FIRE WEATHER... Issued at 259 AM MDT Thu Mar 16 2023 The jet stream will remain active, continuously meandering off of the eastern Pacific and ushering in moisture to the American Southwest over the next several days. A long stretch of well below normal temperatures and periodic bouts of precipitation will preclude the development of any critical fire weather conditions. The next time frame of concern will be Tuesday into Wednesday of next week when stronger winds become widespread across a large portion of NM. However, even with these stronger winds, temperatures appear to remain slightly below normal with the potential for additional showers that could limit the development of any kind of threatening fire weather. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Farmington...................... 50 25 46 24 / 50 5 10 0 Dulce........................... 44 21 40 19 / 80 40 40 10 Cuba............................ 43 22 37 20 / 80 50 50 10 Gallup.......................... 47 25 44 22 / 50 30 30 0 El Morro........................ 44 24 40 22 / 50 50 50 10 Grants.......................... 50 22 42 20 / 30 50 60 10 Quemado......................... 48 26 45 26 / 30 30 40 20 Magdalena....................... 53 27 41 28 / 20 50 60 40 Datil........................... 48 26 43 26 / 20 40 50 30 Reserve......................... 53 25 50 27 / 20 10 30 10 Glenwood........................ 55 34 54 33 / 20 5 20 10 Chama........................... 39 17 34 14 / 90 60 50 20 Los Alamos...................... 45 23 35 24 / 80 70 50 10 Pecos........................... 44 18 33 19 / 90 80 50 10 Cerro/Questa.................... 40 18 34 20 / 90 80 30 20 Red River....................... 33 15 29 11 / 90 80 50 30 Angel Fire...................... 36 10 31 6 / 90 80 50 30 Taos............................ 43 18 36 17 / 80 80 30 10 Mora............................ 39 13 33 13 / 90 80 40 10 Espanola........................ 49 25 40 25 / 80 70 40 5 Santa Fe........................ 46 22 38 23 / 80 80 50 20 Santa Fe Airport................ 52 20 41 21 / 70 80 50 10 Albuquerque Foothills........... 54 29 42 32 / 60 70 40 20 Albuquerque Heights............. 57 31 44 31 / 50 60 20 20 Albuquerque Valley.............. 59 27 46 30 / 40 60 30 20 Albuquerque West Mesa........... 57 29 44 29 / 50 60 30 10 Belen........................... 61 29 48 29 / 30 50 50 30 Bernalillo...................... 56 28 43 29 / 50 70 20 20 Bosque Farms.................... 61 27 47 27 / 30 60 30 20 Corrales........................ 56 29 44 28 / 50 60 20 10 Los Lunas....................... 61 28 47 26 / 30 50 40 20 Placitas........................ 53 26 41 29 / 60 80 40 20 Rio Rancho...................... 55 29 43 29 / 50 60 30 10 Socorro......................... 63 33 48 32 / 20 40 50 40 Sandia Park/Cedar Crest......... 46 21 36 24 / 60 80 60 20 Tijeras......................... 49 24 39 26 / 60 80 70 20 Edgewood........................ 49 20 37 24 / 60 80 60 20 Moriarty/Estancia............... 51 19 39 20 / 60 80 60 20 Clines Corners.................. 46 17 35 20 / 70 80 60 20 Mountainair..................... 51 21 39 24 / 40 70 60 30 Gran Quivira.................... 52 23 40 25 / 40 60 50 30 Carrizozo....................... 58 28 46 31 / 50 50 40 20 Ruidoso......................... 50 17 39 22 / 60 60 50 10 Capulin......................... 35 11 34 15 / 90 30 5 10 Raton........................... 40 15 38 16 / 80 40 10 10 Springer........................ 44 17 40 18 / 80 40 10 5 Las Vegas....................... 43 15 34 15 / 80 70 30 5 Clayton......................... 40 18 40 20 / 80 5 0 0 Roy............................. 46 18 38 19 / 80 30 5 5 Conchas......................... 53 24 46 24 / 80 20 10 5 Santa Rosa...................... 56 25 43 26 / 70 30 30 5 Tucumcari....................... 54 23 47 23 / 70 10 0 0 Clovis.......................... 57 24 47 26 / 40 10 0 0 Portales........................ 60 25 48 24 / 30 20 0 0 Fort Sumner..................... 60 26 48 26 / 50 30 10 5 Roswell......................... 71 32 52 33 / 20 30 10 0 Picacho......................... 63 25 45 28 / 20 40 20 5 Elk............................. 59 22 42 25 / 30 40 30 5 && .ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Wind Advisory until 7 PM MDT this evening for NMZ230-234>236. Winter Storm Warning until 6 AM MDT Friday for NMZ210-211- 213>215. Winter Weather Advisory until 6 AM MDT Friday for NMZ216-227. Wind Advisory until 3 PM MDT this afternoon for NMZ226-240. && SHORT TERM...52 LONG TERM....16 AVIATION...11
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
The GW0819 mesonet station near Clovis, NM measured a peak wind gust of 69 mph.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2023Every state in 2023This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, March 2023
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1077496.